








key: cord-328459-nmd81sue
authors: Dioscoridi, Lorenzo; Carrisi, Chiara
title: Covid-19 exposure risk for family members of healthcare workers: an observational study
date: 2020-07-04
journal: Int J Infect Dis
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijid.2020.06.106
sha: 
doc_id: 328459
cord_uid: nmd81sue

Abstract Background Many papers considered the exposure risk to COVID-19 of general population and healthcare workers (HW). However, no available papers discussed the risk of exposure of family members (FM) of HWs. Aims The present study collected the data of SARS-COV-2 positive FM of HWs using serological rapid IgM/IgG tests (SRT) compared with positive HWs at SRT and serological quantitative IgG test (SQT). Methods The study was conducted from 2nd to 31th May 2020. 38 HWs were tested by both SRT and SQT; 81 FMs were screened using SRT. Descriptive statistical analyses were used to summarize the data. Results Of the 38 HWs, 2 (5,3%) showed IgG line at SRT, confirmed by SQT. 32 HWs decided self-isolation from the family during SARS-COV-2 spreading. Out of 81 FMs, 26 (32,1%) were found IgG positive at SRT. 11 (42%) of them had symptoms typical for COVID-19 in the study period. In two families, the HWs were the only negative case. Conclusions General population’s exposure to COVID-19 was less controlled than HWs’ one. HWs experienced lower infection’s rate than their families and did not represented a risk of transmission for relatives.

Many papers studied COVID-19 transmission in family's clusters (Lebow JL, 2020 Generally, children were not infected. On the basis of these papers, a general concern of healthcare J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f workers (HW) for their family came up. Many HWs decided to isolate themselves from their families to reduce the risk of transmission. However, no studies focused on families of HWs and SARS-COV-2 transmission.

This is an observational prospective study.

The key element of our study was to assess the total number of family members (FM) of HWs positive to SARS-COV-2 infection and the number of positive HWs working in a COVID-19 hospital. HWs were tested by both quantitative IgG serological test (SQT) during the first week of the study and IgM/IgG serological rapid test (SRT) during the first week and the last week of the study at a constant interval of 4 weeks to calculate the total number of positive cases. SRT were performed on FMs during the last week of the study.

The SRT studied both IgG and IgM with a declared sensitivity of 100% for IgG and 85% for IgM SQT used in the study was ELISA test researching IgG anti-S1/anti-S2 for SARS-CoV-2, available and validated for HWs screening in the region of the study (Lombardia, Italy).

Study population derived from a high-volume COVID-19 hospital of Milan, Italy.

The study period was from the 2 nd to the 31 th May 2020 and the follow-up included the whole study period for HWs and FMs. In-hospital infection control measures and personal protective equipment (PPE) use were in line with national and international recommendations.

All the HWs and FMs accepted voluntarily to take part in the study. FMs were first-degree relatives and/or higher degree ones living in the same house of HWs. All the participants were informed about the study and signed an informed consent.

For both HWs and FMs, exposure to COVID-19 cases, onset of suspicious symptoms (also before the study period since the 1 st February 2020), photos of the serological tests after 10 minutes, serological tests' platforms, past medical history, drugs and clinical course were registered. All the data were collected in Excel database, all the SRT platforms were collected and SQT reports were available on our hospital system.

Descriptive statistical analyses were used to summarize the data. Continuous variables with normal distribution were defined as mean and standard deviation. The study size was determined by the number of volunteers in HW's group.

All the 38 HWs and the 81 corresponding FMs accepted to take part in the study and were included according to eligibility criteria.

The outcomes were: 1) calculate the number of FMs positive to SRT for SARS-COV-2 infection; 2) calculate the number of HWs positive to SRT and SQT.

The bias of the study included incorrect performance of SRT, low sensitivity of SRT, confounding factors (drugs, comorbidities, early exposure), use of qualitative tests and interpersonal variability.

Perform of both tests on HWs and inclusion of data on drugs, past medical history of both groups aimed to eventually identify any confounding factor. No subgroup was considered in the present study.

Study period lasted 29 days (2 nd -31 th May 2020).

38 HWs accepted to participate in the study and were included on the base of the eligibility criteria (M 10, F 28, mean age: 4718 y.o.; 9 physicians, 22 nurses and 7 social health professionals). Two of the three old FMs did physiatry rehabilitation at extended care units. In two families, the HW was the only negative member of the family. Youngs and infants were found all negative in the present study. 11 (42%) out of twenty-six cases of IgG positive serological tested relatives had respiratory symptoms, fever and/or diarrhea. In all the reported cases the symptoms did not require hospitalization.

We identified as potential confounding factors the presence of dubious and not well-demarcated IgG line in SRT. However, SQT confirmed negative results in these cases. The main limits of the study were the heterogeneity of the FM group and the lack of comparison between SRT and SQT in the group of relatives.

The study presented the data of COVID-19 spreading in HWs and their families.

A first interesting finding is the high number of relatives positive to SARS-COV-2 infection and the lack of correlation between this data and the infected HWs. The only two IgG positive HWs were self-isolated and did not have any contact with their family members during the study period.

One possible explanation can be that many HWs were false negative to SRT and SQT, but this is an unlikely hypothesis because similar results were obtained by both tests and were confirmed at different times.

Thus, another hypothesis could be that FMs had a lower availability of PPE and were exposed to many undiagnosed cases, especially before the lock-down in Italy.

Our study reported all negative young and infant relatives, also in presence of strict and direct contacts In conclusions, our study broke the common thought that HWs spread SARS-COV-2 infection; according to the found data, HWs experienced lesser infection rate than their families and did not represented a major risk of transmission for relatives.

The present study was self-founded by Santagostino Medical Center, Milan, Italy.

J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f

Family in the Age of COVID-19

A COVID-19 Transmission within a family cluster by presymptomatic infectors in China

The Laboratory Diagnosis of COVID-19 Infection: Current Issues and Challenges

Epidemiological and initial clinical characteristics of patients with family aggregation of COVID-19

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

